Chapter 8 - Evelyn's Fall from Grace
While Daniel was being led out of his corporate headquarters in steel handcuffs,
Evelyn was walking down the high-end shopping district of Fifth Avenue,
pulling a heavy,
tattered suitcase behind her.
Her silver hair,
which was usually perfectly styled every morning by a private hair stylist,
was matted,
frizzy,
and messy.
She had spent her last three hundred dollars on a single night at a dirty roadside motel,
and now her purse contained nothing more than a few loose coins and expired credit cards.
"It’s just a temporary mistake,"
Evelyn muttered to herself as she passed the glistening display windows of Chanel,
Gucci,
and Cartier.
"Daniel will clear this up."
"He is a powerful man."
"He will call his high-ranking friends."
"He will release the money,
and then I will buy this entire store just to spite that ungrateful Emily."
She stopped outside the grand entrance of a private socialite club where she had been a board member for the past two years.
She straightened her wrinkled coat,
smoothed down her dirty hair,
and put on a fake,
haughty smile before pushing through the heavy mahogany doors.
Inside,
the air was filled with the soft sound of violin music,
the clinking of crystal champagne flutes,
and the faint smell of expensive perfumes.
A group of four wealthy women were sitting at a corner table,
laughing softly among themselves.
It was Evelyn's core social circle:
Mrs. Montgomery,
Mrs. Sterling,
and Mrs. HIGGINS.
Evelyn felt a surge of relief rush through her veins.
"Oh,
thank goodness!"
Evelyn cried,
rushing toward their table with open arms.
"Victoria!
Beatrice!
Sophia!"
"You won't believe the nightmare I have been living through for the last twenty-four hours!"
"That evil girl Emily tried to sabotage our family!"
"She locked us out of the mansion!"
"I need to borrow your spare guest house for just a few days until Daniel's international legal team fixes the banking error!"
The four women stopped talking immediately.
They slowly set their champagne glasses down on the white linen tablecloth.
None of them stood up.
None of them smiled.
Mrs. Montgomery,
a tall woman covered in pearls,
slowly pulled a pair of reading glasses over her nose and looked at Evelyn as if she were a dirty stray dog that had wandered into a Michelin-star restaurant.
"Evelyn,"
Mrs. Montgomery said dryly,
her voice dripping with icy disdain.
"What on earth are you doing here?"
"And what are you wearing?"
"You look like you just crawled out of a dumpster."
Evelyn gasped,
her hand flying to her throat in deep shock.
"Victoria!"
"How can you speak to me like that?"
"I am the Vice President of the Fine Arts Gala Committee!"
"I am your closest friend!"
Mrs. Sterling chuckled softly,
taking a slow sip of her vintage champagne.
"You were the Vice President,
Evelyn,"
Mrs. Sterling corrected her smoothly.
"Until eight o'clock this morning."
"The board held an emergency conference call."
"Your membership was unanimously revoked."
"Revoked?"
Evelyn shrieked,
her voice echoing uncomfortably through the quiet tea room,
causing several patrons to turn and stare.
"On what grounds?"
"On the grounds that you are a complete fraud,
my dear,"
Mrs. Montgomery said coldly,
leaning forward across the table.
"We all read the morning financial papers."
"It's front-page news across the entire city."
"Your son didn't own a single brick of that mansion."
"He didn't own his company."
"And that ten thousand dollar monthly allowance you boasted about every single afternoon?"
"It was paid out of Emily Carter's personal charitable trust!"
"You were living on her charity while treating her like a servant!"
"It's utterly embarrassing!"
Evelyn's face burned with a heat so intense she thought her skin might melt off her face.
"That...
that isn't true!"
Evelyn stuttered,
her hands shaking wildly.
"Daniel provided everything!"
"He is the man of the house!"
"Your son is currently sitting in a federal detention center facing twenty years for corporate fraud,
Evelyn,"
Mrs. HIGGINS chimed in,
shaking her head with a disgusted sneer.
"Now,
please step away from our table."
"You are making the champagne taste sour."
"Wait!"
Evelyn begged,
falling to her knees right next to Mrs. Montgomery's chair,
completely abandoning what little dignity she had left.
"Please,
Victoria!"
"Just lend me two thousand dollars!"
"Just enough for a decent hotel room and food!"
"I will pay you back double as soon as Daniel is released!"
Mrs. Montgomery signaled to two large security guards standing near the entrance.
"Escort this woman out,
please,"
she said calmly,
without even looking down at Evelyn.
"She is disturbing the guests."
The guards promptly grabbed Evelyn under her armpits,
hoisting her to her feet and dragging her backward out of the elegant room.
Evelyn kicked and screamed,
her cheap shoes flying off her feet,
clattering across the polished hardwood floor.
"You monsters!"
she screamed,
her voice breaking into wretched sobs as she was thrown out into the dirty alleyway behind the club.
"I am Evelyn Vance!"
"I am a woman of high society!"
The heavy back door slammed shut,
locking automatically with a loud,
final click.
Evelyn sat in the dirty alleyway,
surrounded by overflowing trash cans and discarded cardboard boxes,
clutching her empty purse to her chest.
There was no driver.
There was no allowance.
There were no high society friends.
May you like
She was entirely,
completely alone.
